The Vice-President of the ECB gives a conference at CUNEF

Luis de Guindos, Vice-President of the European Central Bank, gave a lecture on the “Economic Outlook for the Eurozone and the Future of Monetary Policy” to CUNEF students today. The event was chaired by Manuel Balmaseda, director of the Institute of Banking and Finance, and opened by Ana I. Fernández, Rector of CUNEF Universidad, who gave a welcome speech.

During his conference, Luis de Guindos analysed the current economic situation and talked about the future:

• The economic situation is improving and the fear of a technical recession is fading, although some threats exist. The improvement is due to the significant decrease in energy prices, especially gas; the unwinding of existing bottlenecks in the global economy, closely related to the reopening of the economy after the pandemic; improving consumer confidence indicators; and a very positive evolution of the labour market in Europe.
• Headline inflation will continue to decelerate in the short term, and we expect it to be below 6% by mid-year; core inflation, however, will remain high.
• The inflationary process, which can have a positive effect initially thanks to inflation tax on public accounts, could end up having a negative impact.
• He reiterated that the ECB aims for a stable 2% inflation target over the medium term.